“I will love you as a thief loves a gallery and as a crow loves a murder, as a cloud loves bats and as a range loves braes. I will love you as misfortune loves orphans, as fire loves innocence and as justice loves to sit and watch while everything goes wrong. I will love you as a battlefield loves young men and as peppermints love your allergies, and I will love you as the banana peel loves the shoe of a man who was just struck by a shingle falling off a house. I will love you as a volunteer fire department loves rushing into burning buildings and as burning buildings love to chase them back out, and as a parachute loves to leave a blimp and as a blimp operator loves to chase after it.

I will love you as a dagger loves a certain person’s back, and as a certain person loves to wear dagger proof tunics, and as a dagger proof tunic loves to go to a certain dry cleaning facility, and how a certain employee of a dry cleaning facility loves to stay up late with a pair of binoculars, watching a dagger factory for hours in the hopes of catching a burglar, and as a burglar loves sneaking up behind people with binoculars, suddenly realizing that she has left her dagger at home. I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled.

I will love you until every fire is extinguished and until every home is rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods, and until every criminal is handcuffed by the laziest of policemen. I will love until M. hates snakes and J. hates grammar, and I will love you until C. realizes S. is not worthy of his love and N. realizes he is not worthy of the V. I will love you until the bird hates a nest and the worm hates an apple, and until the apple hates a tree and the tree hates a nest, and until a bird hates a tree and an apple hates a nest, although honestly I cannot imagine that last occurrence no matter how hard I try.

I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and happened several days ago, continuously, and then several years before that, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area.

I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where we once we were so close that we could slip the curved straw, and the long, slender spoon, between our lips and fingers respectively.

I will love you until the chances of us running into one another slip from slim to zero, and until your face is fogged by distant memory, and your memory faced by distant fog, and your fog memorized by a distant face, and your distance distanced by the memorized memory of a foggy fog.

I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, no matter where you avoid and who you don’t see, and no matter who sees you avoiding where you go. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this, and no matter how I am discovered after what happens to me as I am discovering this.” ~ Lemony Snickett

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

From underneath the trees, we watch the sky
Confusing stars for satellites
I never dreamed that you'd be mine
But here we are, we're here tonight

Singing Amen, I - I'm alive, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive

If everyone cared, and nobody cried
If everyone loved, and nobody lied
If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day
When nobody died

And I'm singing

Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive
Amen I, Amen I, Amen I, I'm alive

And in the air the fireflies
Our only light in paradise
We'll show the world they were wrong
And teach them all to sing along

Singing Amen, I - I'm alive, I'm alive
Singing Amen, I, I'm alive

If everyone cared, and nobody cried
If everyone loved, and nobody lied
If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day
When nobody died

If everyone cared, and nobody cried
If everyone loved, and nobody lied
If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day
When nobody died

If everyone cared, and nobody cried
If everyone loved, and nobody lied
If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day
When nobody died, when nobody died

And as we lie beneath the stars
We realize how small we are
If they could love like you and me
Imagine what the world could be

If everyone cared, and nobody cried
If everyone loved, and nobody lied
If everyone shared, and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day
When nobody died, when nobody died
We'd see the day when nobody died
We'd see the day when nobody died

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Hey baby
My baby
Sweet baby
I'm on the bus tour bus bunk
I got my headphones on
and I'm listening to Elliot
rock rock rock rock
rock me to sleep
I got the phone on vibrate
in case you call me
rock me to sleep
I got my heart on migrate
in case you need to tell me

You love me
love me
love me
even though I stay gone so long
So long baby I've been longing for you
and the sweet smells of our home

I hope nobody dies while I'm out here
hope nobody dies
I hope nobody cries when I'm not there
hope nobody cries

Snow in March
Spring in May
Do you remember
Younger days
Before the arctic ice was
turning to sea
Before the polar bear was
drifting helplessly

Oh it's a rollaway rollaway rollaway bed
roll away with you baby
and I'll take anything
that'll help me sleep
So save me save me
Save me a piece
of the heart that pumps the blood
right through your veins
Save me a piece
of the magic hours
that the twilight brings

Now bring them to me
bring them to me
on the bus tour bus bunk
Meet me in the bunk now baby
or am I out of luck now baby
Am I pushing my luck

I got the phone on vibrate
in case you call me
pushing my luck
I made some room now baby
in case you've come to save me

Snow in March
Spring in May
Do you remember
younger days
Before the arctic ice was
turning to sea
Before the polar bear was
drifting helplessly

Saturday, October 20, 2012

I know you know
Let the life come back and force through my veins
It goes, it goes
Through the protons, neutrons securing the frame
Say yes say no
It's a matter of me forcing the praise
Put on the new
Woman, man, and child who are breaking the braces

The catacombs
And revolving doors inside of my brain
Preachers and whores
And the neon pulpits burst into flames
I come from both
Sides of me and either side of their tracks
Humbling my ghosts
Letting life that floods my veins bring me back

The unshackling of the chains on my wrists
And the loyalty to pain that resists
And the greatest books are talking about this
Why must everybody die to exist?

Hello my love
Seeking passages and food for your soul
On 95
Look ahead cause they're not filling that hole yet
Come lay your hands
Over mine and it will make us both brave
Braver to know
Let the light, the life force back in our veins

The unshackling of the chains on my wrists
And the loyalty to pain that resists
And the greatest books are talking about this
Why must everybody die to exist?

Are you ready for the power of god?
Are you waiting for the saints to all nod?
At the girl who should be raised from the dead?
At the demons who've been forced from my head?

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Nothing goes as planned
Everything will break
People say goodbye
In their own special way
All that you rely on
And all that you could fake
Will leave you in the morning
Come find you in the day

Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out
Oh, you’re all I taste, at night inside of my mouth
Oh, you run away, cause I am not what you found
Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out

Everything will change
Nothing stays the same
Nobody is perfect
Oh, but everyone is to blame
All that you rely on
And all that you can save
Will leave you in the morning
Will find you in the day

Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out
Oh, you’re all I taste, at night inside of my mouth
Oh, you run away, cause I am not what you found
Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out
No I cannot get you out
No I cannot get you out
Oh no, I cannot get you out
No I cannot get you out

Everything is dark
It’s more than you could take
But you catch a glimpse of sunlight
Shining
Shining down on your face
Your face
On your face

Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out
Oh, you’re all I taste, at night inside of my mouth
Oh, you run away, cause I am not what you found
Oh, you’re in my veins, and I cannot get you out
No, i cannot get you out
No, i cannot get you out...
Oh no, I cannot get you...

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

"All I Have to Do is Dream" sung by the Everly Brothers, 1958 (written by Boudleaux Bryant)

Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream
When I want you
in my arms
When I want you
and all your charms
Whenever I want you
all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream

When I feel blue
in the night
And I need you
to hold me tight
Whenever I want you
all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream

I can make you mine
taste your lips of wine
Anytime
night or day
Only trouble is
gee whiz
I'm dreamin' my life away

I need you so
that I could die
I love you so
and that is why
Whenever I want you,
all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam

I can make you mine
taste your lips of wine
Anytime
night or day
Only trouble is
gee whiz
I'm dreamin' my life away

I need you so
that I could die
I love you so
and that is why
Whenever I want you
all I have to do is
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam
dream, dream, dream

Monday, August 6, 2012

Two Wistful Cosmic Feeling Songs: Soul Meets Body and the Stars All Seem to Weep

"Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab for Cutie

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what it's like to be new

Cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here

And I cannot guess what we'll discover
When we turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels
But I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
And not one speck will remain

And I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too

So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
Where soul meets body
Where soul meets body
Where soul meets body

And I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
But if the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too

So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

"Stars All Seem to Weep" by Beth Orton

Stayed true to the things I knew when I was younger
And food and love was all but left to hunger.
'Cause when I stray from my truth as I grow older
Too much leaves an empty hollow hunger.

I think about you on a moonlit night
And the stars all seem to weep.
When there's so much to lose
There's never any time for sleep.

Look at me doing all these things without you.
We always left a new world untrue.
Where was it we tried hard not to go to?
I think that's how I finally came through.

All the things we took for granted
The words still live on in my head
All the times I took for granted
All the words I never said.

I think about you in the moonlit night,
And the stars all seem to weep.
When there's so much love to give,
There's never any time for sleep, yeah.

So I stayed true to the things I knew when I was younger
And human life was all but left to hunger,
'Cause when I stray from the truth as I grow older
Too much leaves an empty hollow hunger.
Too much leaves an empty hollow hunger.

When I wake up (when I wake up)
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you (Yeah I know)
When I go out (when I go out)
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you (who?)
If I get drunk (If I get drunk, )
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you (yeah) Yes!
And if I haver (when I haver)
yeah I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
The man who's havering to you (It's on 'ere)

But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door

When I'm working (when I'm working)
Yes I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's working hard for you (shake a ka)
And when the money (and when the money)
Comes in for the work I do
I'll pass almost every penny on to you
When I come home (when I come home),
I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
The man who comes back home to you
And when I grow old (when I grow old)
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's growing old with you
(Now! )

But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles,
To fall down at your door

Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
... etc. x2

When I'm lonely
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who's lonely without you
When I'm dreaming
Well I know I'm gonna dream
I'm gonna dream about the time when I'm with you
When I go out (when I go out)
Well I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you
And when I come home (when I come home)
Yeah I know I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be the man who comes back home with you
I'm gonna be the man who's coming home with you

But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door

Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
[x5]

Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
Da da lat da (Da da lat da)
[x2}

And I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles
To fall down at your door

Sunday, July 1, 2012

"Who, if I cried out, would hear me
In the order of angels? If an angel heard
And in a sudden movement I were taken
to his heart,
Into the presence of his greater Being,
Would I not be consumed?
For beauty is the beginning of fear,
A movement we can hardly bear,
And we marvel that it serenely refrains
From destroying us."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, First Elegy

Sunday, June 10, 2012

A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin’s eyes
I’m looking up into the sapphire-tinted skies
I’m well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain’t doing me any good
I’m in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons, do the jitterbug rag
Ain’t no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
Only a fool in here would think he’s got anything to prove

Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff too
Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road
If the Bible is right, the world will explode
I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can’t win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheelbarrow and wheeling her down the street

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don’t show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get low down, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I’m in love with a woman who don’t even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I’m not that eager to make a mistake

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Mister Rogers remixed by Symphony of Science's John Boswell for PBS Digital Studios.

When we discovered video mash-up artist John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep, on YouTube, we immediately wanted to work together. Turns out that he is a huge Mister Rogers Neighborhood fan, and was thrilled at the chance to pay tribute to one of our heroes. Both PBS and the Fred Rogers Company hope you like John's celebration of Fred Rogers' message.

If you like this video, please support your local PBS station.

This is the first in a series of PBS icons remixed.

Many thanks to the folks at the Fred Rogers Company for their support.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Faith takes us to deep places, to the ruptures in our self-confidence and our lives. Do not settle for spiritual comfort all the time…Darkness is divine also. Faith is not about positive thinking so much as about what kicks in when we are weak, sick, and short of self-confidence. The via positiva never stands alone. The via negativa is always with us on our faith journey as well. ~ Matthew Fox

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

~ David Whyte, Sweet Darkness

There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. ~ Carl Gustav Jung

Gray - quiet and tired and mean.
Picking at a worried seam.
I try to make you mad at me, over the phone.
Red - eyes and fire and signs.
I'm taken by a nursery rhyme.
I wanna make a ray of sunshine,
and never leave home.

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.

The road gets cold, there's no spring in the meadow this year.
And I'm the new chicken, clucking open hearts and ears.
Oh, such a prima donna, sorry for myself.
But green - it is also summer.
And I won't be warm till I'm lying in your arms.

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.

I see it all through a telescope:
It's our suitcase, and a warm coat.
Lying in the back of the blue boat, humming a tune...
(Mmmmmmmm.)

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have...

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying.
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine.
No no no no no. Nothing else will do.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.
I've gotta have you.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Just about the time
your heart breaks like a wheel
Not in a straight line,
but all in pieces
Some you'll leave behind
on a road you won't revise
No, you won't revisit that
dirty compromise.

Now you only dream in peaceful blue
The morning doesn't even scare you
anymore
You are a phoenix with your feathers
still a little wet
Baby,
the ashes just look pretty on your eyes.

So look up, up ahead
The city lights are dancing for you
Or is it the aurora burning
off the edges of the sky?
Don't cry, don't cry
That's all over now.

Now you only dream in peaceful blue
The morning doesn't even scare you
anymore
You are a phoenix with your feathers
still a little wet
Baby,
the ashes just look pretty on your eyes.

Dry your wings in the sun
You have only begun
to understand
When it's time to move on
there is no one
To hold your hand.
So let go,
let go,
let go.

Here the night is fine
The stars are sparks of steel
Chiseled in the mines of twilight
You tell me something real, say
"Don't try, don't try
Just remember how, remember, remember"

Now you only dream in peaceful blue
The morning doesn't even scare you
anymore
You are a phoenix with your feathers
still a little wet
Baby,
the ashes just look pretty on your eyes
pretty on your eyes
pretty on your eyes